Community and businesses come together to bring high speed broadband to village

Community and businesses come together to bring high speed broadband to village

The villages of Nun Monkton and Moor Monkton, just off the A59 towards York, will be able to enjoy high speed broadband in the coming weeks, thanks to the latest Community Broadband Project funded by Defra’s Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), with match investment from NYnet, Clannet, and the Nun Monkton Community itself.

As the fifth project of its kind under the funding, the Nun Monkton project began in earnest over a year ago when the community, and an interested local business, got together to drive forward the initiative and gather the support of the residents of Nun Monkton.

For this network to be sustainable it needed the buy in from not only the residents but the businesses in the village as well. The village is small in terms of numbers of subscribers needed to make such a network sustainable, fortunately three local business interests, Green-tech, Richard and Kate Harpin and Nun Monkton Estate, have stepped forward to support the business plan. It was also crucial for neighbouring Moor Monkton to get involved to increase the viability of the scheme.

Green-tech, one of the largest local employers for Nun Monkton, supplies the landscaping, grounds maintenance, forestry and agriculture markets with innovative products that protect, enhance and improve plants and their environment.

Kate Humes, marketing manager for Green-tech, said, ‘The local Internet upgrade is paramount to Green-tech’s business development and future ecommerce strategy. We are proud to be part of a local initiative that will not only benefit Green-tech and its employees but Nun Monkton village as a whole.’

Mike Turnham, Community Broadband champion for Nun Monkton, said, ‘We have a real mix of residents here in the village from retired people to young families, each needing access to the Internet for different services. We have people who want to work from home or access applications like BBC iPlayer, and for others they want to be able to order their prescriptions or groceries online. The whole village is very excited about the new network and people can’t wait to get connected.’

The installations begin this week starting with the village and local businesses of 47 subscribers and then the network will be extended out to the neighbouring village of Moor Monkton where 25 subscribers have already signed up for the new connection. The network should be complete by the Spring.

Nick Hall, Managing director of Clannet, the service provider of the network, said, ‘I was very impressed with the commitment and involvement of the community, which made us more determined to make this network happen. Equally, Green-tech was just as determined and committed as they could see the benefit to their employees, many of whom live in the local community. Another benefit of the project is that we are training a local tradesman, Jack Stout, to become a fully qualified installer thus providing employment and a resource for the community.’

The Nun Monkton Foundation Primary School is also very excited about the project. As the host of the hub for the network the project could not have gone ahead without their cooperation. The school understood the potential benefits to the local community and to their own pupils who may access the network to utilise the school’s Virtual Learning Environment.